Tara Bogart: a modern hair study

Tara Bogart: a modern hair study by Grant GillJune 22, 2016

©Tara Bogart, Elisa

In early 2012, Aline shared the work of one my dearest friends, Tara Bogart. She, a lab tech at the time at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and I, a third-year student, not even able to predict my future with this blog, sat together and celebrated how exciting it was to launch what was a fresh body of work. Since then, a modern hair study has seamlessly worked it’s way through various news sources and has been paired in exhibition with such artists as Kehinde Wiley, Cindy Sherman, and Mickalene Thomas, to name only a few.

I am delighted to share the announcement that Tara has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help publish a modern hair study. In collaboration with Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg Berlin, her first book will feature two essays, the first written by Heloise Conesa, the Contemporary Curator of Photography at the National Library of France, and the second by Caroline Weber, author and Professor of Eighteenth Century French literature and cultural history at Columbia University’s Barnard College. The book will pan the portraits that she began taking in Milwaukee, along with the body of work’s French counterpart un capillaire modern etude.

The importance of this book as it pertains to female identity cannot be stressed enough. These vignettes celebrate the beauty of a 20-something woman today – the beauty of all women at this early time of transition. Enjoy this book as you contemplate the distinguishing marks and impressions that make each woman an individual. I know I will.

For more about the Kickstarter campaign click here.

Tara Bogart was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently living and working in Paris, France. Bogart has exhibited work at Hous Projects, New York; Aperture, New York; Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago; Center of the Arts at Virginia Tech, VA; The Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee; The Newspace Photo Center, Portland, OR; Rayko Photo Center, CA; INOVA (Institute of Visual Arts), Milwaukee; Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, WI; Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee; and The Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI. She has been reviewed by the New Yorker and featured in LENSCRATCH, CNN Worldwide Photos, Zoom Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, and The New Republic, American Photography 29, Wonderzine, Russia, I-D Vice and Refinery29. Tara Bogart is in the private and public collections of The National Library of France, Paris, and the J Crew Corporate Collection to name a few. Tara is represented by Elizabeth Houston Gallery, NYC.

©Tara Bogart, Brigitte

a modern hair study

In 2011, I visited the photo archives of the National Library of France. While everything was inspirational, one photograph haunted me for months following my visit. “Hair Study,” by Felix Nadar depicts just a womanʼs back and her hair. I could not stop thinking about what that same image would look like today.

a modern hair study consists of portraits of young women photographed from behind. By focusing on the back, the viewer is forced to contend with all of the peripheral things that make each woman unique.

In these intimate portraits I am a voyeur concentrating on a generation that is not mine. While certain ideals are often relevant to different generations, the ways in which women adorn and modify themselves often indicate the struggles of a young adult with their own ideology and individuality.

After photographing these women, I can imagine these struggles are timeless. Existing today as well as when the original Nadar portrait was taken.